Acorns

What a Fantastic Week in Acorn Class! We have had another action-packed week full of outdoor discoveries, hands-on learning, and thoughtful discussions.

Forest School Autumn Adventures: During Forest School, we explored how our outdoor environment is changing and hunted for signs of Autumn. We noticed how the trees are changing colour and gathered a wonderful array of fallen leaves to make our very own "leaf kebabs"!

Building Strong Bodies and Fingers: In our provision, we have been focusing on physical development. We used paint rollers with big movements across our bodies (crossing the midline), which builds essential shoulder, arm, and core stability. We used our fingers to pinch and manipulate pom-poms, strengthening the exact muscles needed to develop a confident tripod pencil grip.

In Maths, we have been practising our subitising skills using our "fast eyes" to recognise amounts without counting! We focused on the numbers 2, 3, and 4, and had great fun discovering all the different ways we can compose the number 4.

We explored the story of the Good Samaritan, which is an especially important story in our school. The children listened brilliantly, reflecting on how crucial it is to help others when they are in need—making sure we step in to care for one another rather than just "passing on by."

Year 1 & 2

We have loved watching the children be inspired by the life of environmental and wild life campaigner, Jane Goodall this week. Her story provided the hook for our 'clever writing' and the children in Year 2 rose to the challenge of adding expanded noun phrases  (using adjectives to describe a noun!) to their recounts. In Year 1, the children embedded the important skill of starting their sentences with a range of time adverbials.  Our History lessons continue to focus on holidays and how they have changed over the years. Mrs Barrasford and Mrs Fox felt very old as the children quizzed them about holidays in the 'olden days'!  We discovered that although there have been some huge changes in the way we holiday, some things remain constant and children still love a bucket and spade and a paddle!

Our Maths lessons have moved to the new, important topic of 'Addition and Subtraction' and Year 1  have been learning about Part, Whole models and how they help us to partition numbers within 10. In Year 2, we have revised our bonds to 10 and are using them to derive addition and subtraction facts within 20.  We are encouraging the children to use the Stem sentence,  "If I know 7+3 = 10, I also know 17+3 = 20".

Year 3 & 4

Harvest Festival

What a fantastic week we have had in Year 3/4! I am incredibly proud of all the children, especially for their wonderful performances at our Harvest Festival this week.

All three classes performed their Bible stories with such confidence and enthusiasm. Hazel Class shared the story of Jesus Feeding the 5,000, Holly Class performed Ruth and Naomi at Harvest, and Hawthorn Class brought The Pharaoh's Dream to life. Every single child did an amazing job, and their singing was absolutely beautiful! It was lovely to see all their hard work and rehearsals come together. A huge well done to everyone! Thank you also to all the parents who helped us walk down to church and to everyone who came along to support us. It really was a lovely celebration!

Science

In Science, we have continued our topic Animals Including Humans, focusing this week on nutrition and the seven food groups: carbohydrates, proteins, fibre, vitamins, minerals, water and fats. The children became food detectives, investigating food packaging and nutritional labels to discover how healthy different foods really are. We paid particular attention to fat content, including saturated fats, and sugar levels. The children then applied their maths skills by recording their findings in bar charts. We were quite surprised to discover that some foods we thought were healthy actually contained more fat and sugar than we had expected! It certainly got us thinking more carefully about the foods we eat.

English

In English, the children have been learning how to write effective instructions. We have focused on using rhetorical questions to engage the reader and adverbs as sentence openers to make our instructions more interesting and precise. The children then put their skills into practice by writing instructions explaining how to make a shape sculpture, linking beautifully to the sculptures they had previously created in Art. It was fantastic to see them using their own experiences to produce clear, detailed instructions.

PE

The children have been thoroughly enjoying their PE lessons this half term! They have been developing their football skills with Mr Neary, practising their control, passing and teamwork.Swimming has also continued each week, and it has been wonderful to see the children's confidence and skills developing in the water. Most importantly, it has been fantastic to see how much enjoyment the children are getting from both activities. Well done, Year 3/4, for another brilliant week!

Art – Shadow Sculptures

This week, the children completed their fantastic shadow sculptures! Using the letters they had created the previous week, they carefully joined them together before taking their sculptures outside to explore the shadows they could create. We used our school motto, “Grow Together, Shine Forever,” as the inspiration for our artwork. The results were absolutely brilliant! It was wonderful to see the children working so collaboratively, using their creativity and teamwork to bring their sculptures to life. A huge well done to everyone for their fantastic efforts!

Year 5 & 6

It’s been a very busy week in Year 5/6! Following our adventurous return from residential last week, the children have quickly settled back into their usual school routines and have shown a fantastic attitude towards their learning.

In History, we have been stepping into the shoes of local historians, investigating how Fenny Stratford has changed since 1929. We have been exploring historical maps of the area, comparing the past with the present and asking thoughtful questions about the changes we have discovered. The children have shown great curiosity and enthusiasm as they begin to uncover the fascinating history of our local community. We are looking forward to continuing our investigations next week, delving deeper into the past and developing our own historical enquiry questions.

In Music, we have been busy becoming composers, creating our very own musical compositions using the C major scale, starting from middle C. We have loved exploring written musical notation and using the glockenspiels to create, experiment with and develop our own pieces of music. It has been wonderful to see the children's creativity and confidence grow as they bring their musical ideas to life. Take a look at the photographs of our compositions – we are incredibly proud of them!

Year 6 also had a fantastic opportunity to shine this week as they took on the important role of school ambassadors, showing prospective parents around our wonderful school. They were absolutely superb, demonstrating confidence, maturity and excellent oracy skills as they spoke so enthusiastically about school life. They were brilliant representatives of our school community, and we couldn't be prouder of them!

What a wonderful week of learning, creativity and leadership! Well done, Year 5/6!